One of the most likely candidate plants to be sold off to the new Oldsmobile owners if is they go the domestic production route is the Doraville Assembly. IOTL GM made the decision to close it in 2005 (so it wasn't a desperation closing at the height of the financial crisis).
WI: General Motors decides to offload Oldsmobile, Saturn, Holden during the 2000s and 2010s?
- Thread starter saltburn861
- Start date
One of the most likely candidate plants to be sold off to the new Oldsmobile owners if is they go the domestic production route is the Doraville Assembly. IOTL GM made the decision to close it in 2005 (so it wasn't a desperation closing at the height of the financial crisis).
Good point about the Doraville Assembly.
In this ATL, it still produces vehicles under contract for GM as part of the sale agreement - the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana and Saturn Relay, but production is transferred once the year 2007 happens, as in OTL. However, in the ATL, it only produces vehicles under contract for 2 years to fulfil an agreement, for the next 2 years, production is done from elsewhere (not fully decided), and these changes happen:
In this ATL, it still produces vehicles under contract for GM as part of the sale agreement - the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana and Saturn Relay, but production is transferred once the year 2007 happens, as in OTL. However, in the ATL, it only produces vehicles under contract for 2 years to fulfil an agreement, for the next 2 years, production is done from elsewhere (not fully decided), and these changes happen:
- The Chevrolet Uplander continues until 2010, and in this ATL, it is made into a minivan/SUV crossover for 2010
- The Pontiac brand continues, with the Montana also becoming a minivan/SUV crossover for 2010.
- As for Saturn, not sure what to do with that.
So have you decided what facilities would be handed over as part of the sale, and if any of the sold facilities would stay open and producing cars past their OTL closing date?
marathag
Banned
Well, a 2007 $24,000 sedan based on an Opel didn't have all the charm as a Lotus based Roadster for 4X the Money
The Doraville Assembly would be handed over as part of the sale but build vehicles under contract for GM.
In this ATL, the millionaire in my original post on the first page is looking to create his own sort of rival to Tata Group - Oldsmobile being retooled into a "Classic Americana" luxury brand, and acquiring two other brands (maybe not Rover / MG), since, as was said:
Two factories which closed in OTL but remains open in the ATL is Leeds Assembly in Missouri (for new Buick and Chevrolet product - in the ATL it's used currently for Chevrolet cars) and South Gate Assembly in California (for possible Buick crossover in 2008-2009 model year?)
Leeds Assembly could be used for a new Buick crossover based on the Epsilon platform, which has no Chevrolet equivalent in the U.S. or Canada yet in the ATL (although in Latin America, it's a Chevrolet, due to Buick cars not being sold in Mercosur - if I'm correct wasn't the 1982-1996 Buick Century sedan sold as the Chevrolet Century but with Buick badging?).
This crossover would be launched around 2005-2006 and be marketed at those buying the then-new Mercury Mariner - if I'm right, people cross-shopped Buick and Mercury, like Ford and Chevrolet?
I'm not following how a couple of factories staying open that closed IOTL helps remedy the problem I pointed out that you bolded. Ultimately, the reason that independent makers of all types started getting conglomeratized in the aughts was that economies of scale that larger companies had that produced all types of cars made them better suited to fulfill the challenges of meeting CAFE and every other countries' version thereof. An independent luxury automaker would have to manufacture small cars that it would struggle to sell profitably just to meet the standard.
The bits I'd bolded - in the ATL the millionaire/billionaire (analogous to Elon Musk, sort of) is intending to create his own automobile division of his industrial company. Sort of like how Jim Ratcliffe of INEOS is doing the same thing in ITL, but he owns a petrochemical company.
As for the factories bit, that was indicating the divergence from OTL.
I'm still working out the actual what's what of this ATL - this WI is for a partial WI: about the late 2000s I may be writing in the next few months! (set as a sort of RP, if anyone likes... and cars aren't the only focus. Some new celebs who didn't exist in OTL are included too, and other changes to be determined!)
What Elon Musk does works because it's all electric: all luxury, no dinky cars because he doesn't have to worry about CAFE, hype factor that appeals to elites, qualifies for tax credits for the buyers. Even then it's disputable whether it's working at all, Tesla may or may not be on the verge of bankruptcy. What's honestly more likely in your scenario is that your hypothetical genuis playboy billionaire philanthropist acquires his factories and assets, runs then at a massive loss for a few-5 years or so, and then shuts the whole lot down and runs from the auto industry with his tail between his legs, unless he tries some unconventional financing methods like ol'John DeLorean. Look at what happened to Spyker when they bought Saab and found out just what running a mass market automaker is all about.
Thank you. Makes sense now. I may reboot this anyway as a different WI discussion.
The best way to keep it going is to make it two-step.
The initial sale is to the guy with more money than sense, and it follows the same trajectory @AnonymousSauce lists and that OTL Rover did in the 2000s-sputters for a few more years before failing. To GM, it's a "whew, that sucker actually fell for it?" way to shut the brand down in a way that might net them a bit of money instead of less money (to buy out dealers and the like). They keep with the GM platforms and might, depending on how much R&D they inherit/spend (and even then I'm pretty skeptical), get a new model into production-which will almost certainly sell poorly, due to the lack of name recognition and the "no one wants to buy a car from a doomed brand" effect. So Independent Oldsmobile accomplishes little except for building a few hundred thousand more cars with the Oldsmobile logo and keeping a few thousand employees employed for a little longer...
...Until a foreign company sees the broken wreck of Independent Oldsmobile and buys that up. The main interest is the dealers-the brand name is unlikely to be very popular, and the cars themselves are either leftover relics or facing crunched, limited development. But still, it's a foot in the door. What happens to the (still UAW) plants is a different story. The research/technical facilities can be used, and maybe some/one of the plants can be used for building either currency-sensitive or chicken-taxed vehicles[1] in the US. Of course, GM's initial sale contract would probably have some "no-resale" clause because they'd suspect it could be a backdoor way to open the US market to a competitor, and because the only way to get a legitimate profit for Independent Oldsmobile is to just sell it again at a higher price than they paid GM. But still, that's the most viable way.
[1]Yes, this means Oldsmobile-branded pickup trucks and vans, unless the buyer just piggybacks their own brand on the Oldsmobile dealers.
The initial sale is to the guy with more money than sense, and it follows the same trajectory @AnonymousSauce lists and that OTL Rover did in the 2000s-sputters for a few more years before failing. To GM, it's a "whew, that sucker actually fell for it?" way to shut the brand down in a way that might net them a bit of money instead of less money (to buy out dealers and the like). They keep with the GM platforms and might, depending on how much R&D they inherit/spend (and even then I'm pretty skeptical), get a new model into production-which will almost certainly sell poorly, due to the lack of name recognition and the "no one wants to buy a car from a doomed brand" effect. So Independent Oldsmobile accomplishes little except for building a few hundred thousand more cars with the Oldsmobile logo and keeping a few thousand employees employed for a little longer...
...Until a foreign company sees the broken wreck of Independent Oldsmobile and buys that up. The main interest is the dealers-the brand name is unlikely to be very popular, and the cars themselves are either leftover relics or facing crunched, limited development. But still, it's a foot in the door. What happens to the (still UAW) plants is a different story. The research/technical facilities can be used, and maybe some/one of the plants can be used for building either currency-sensitive or chicken-taxed vehicles[1] in the US. Of course, GM's initial sale contract would probably have some "no-resale" clause because they'd suspect it could be a backdoor way to open the US market to a competitor, and because the only way to get a legitimate profit for Independent Oldsmobile is to just sell it again at a higher price than they paid GM. But still, that's the most viable way.
[1]Yes, this means Oldsmobile-branded pickup trucks and vans, unless the buyer just piggybacks their own brand on the Oldsmobile dealers.
Fiat would be a great candidate if Indy Olds collapses before OTL Autogeddon...
Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
This might be too early a POD, but maybe the GM EV1 is sold under the Saturn brand with the idea of making Saturn GM's innovation branch? The EV1 can still be shut down as it was OTL, but that steers Saturn in the Tesla direction and makes it a more attractive purchase for someone like Musk. The EV1 had a sort of cult status among first generation tech boom guys in the late 90's.
That actually sounds like a good idea, and I'll do that as a separate WI thread, which would make some sense.
Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
I had actually forgotten that EV1s were serviced through Saturn dealerships until I looked it up after making that post.
I agree with most of your proposal, but this seems like "assuming facts not in evidence". With a change of management, the UAW contracts would be void, no? Those are GM employees, after all.
On the issue of dealers, I think you've mistaken something again: they aren't, strictly speaking, "owned" by GM (or *Olds), but licenced by. So for (frex) Lada to buy *Olds from Gideon Reeves for the dealer network is a non-starter.
A thought: to improve sales, what are the chances *Olds provides cars to a TV cop show? Or a big-star movie?